October 15, 2016

Brined Chevon Roast & Pizza Sauce

The other day I took inventory of the deep freezer. We're going to be harvesting meat soon, and I need to make room in the freezer for it. Besides meat I store bulk grain in my freezer, also my shredded mozzarella cheese, frozen eggs, and unbaked pies. I add peaches, blueberries, figs, strawberries, elderberries, raspberries, and tomatoes as I harvest them. Now it's time to start turning those into jelly, jam, and sauce.

I decided to pull out the frozen tomatoes first and begin pizza sauce making. While I was in there I grabbed a small chevon roast and decided to brine it after it defrosted.

The next day I put the tomatoes in a colander to drain.

I started freezing tomatoes when I learned that peeling frozen tomatoes is easier than the boiling water and ice dunks. Now that I have my Roma Sauce Maker (photo of that here, plus the recipe for my pizza sauce) it's even easier to simply run the tomatoes through it to remove the seeds and peels. I drain out the tomato water from defrosting first, however, to save on sauce cook-down time. I save it for things like - well, you'll see.

Stir to dissolve the salt and sugar. Add meat and optional seasonings as desired.

My optional seasonings were a big handful of fresh cut rosemary and a small handful of fresh garlic. These made a nice bed for the roast in the brine. Brining time was about 4 hours.

After lunch I drained off the brine and discarded it. That's not something I would ordinarily do, because my frugal nature requires that I use and reuse everything I can. But the brine was used for soaking raw meat which meant it wasn't safe to use again.

I saved the rosemary and garlic to add to the roast for cooking. I also added one cup of my tomato water and put it in the slow cooker on high for about two hours, then low until it was done. Fresh baked bread and steamed carrots rounded off the dinner.

Here's the embarrassing part. The finished roast was beautiful and I honestly meant to get a picture. But it had been smelling so good all afternoon and we were so hungry that I forgot about a photo until it was too late.

And the pizza sauce? It's still cooking down in my crock pot, but it smells might good too. When it's thick enough I'll can it.

People often ask what goat meat tastes like. I don't think there is any way to correctly answer that question. It doesn't taste like beef, pork, mutton or lamb, or venison. Each kind of meat has it's own incomparable flavor. I've heard rabbit, snake, and alligator meat all compared to chicken, but I've had them all and no, they don't taste like chicken! Heck, even turkey doesn't taste like chicken. The only answer is that chevon is a red meat and that's what it tastes like.

Now we can look forward to some good soup from the leftover stock and meat scraps. The bone will be saved for broth.

Most folks call it "cabritos." Our very first goat meat, however, was done by a meat processor, and the ready made packages came back labeled "chevon." So I've called it that ever since. I later learned that "chevon" is the legal term for goat meat as stipulated by the USDA. "Cabritos" is more common, but it is a cultural term signifying kid meat rather than goat in general. We process adults as needed too, so chevon seems more technically accurate, although who's around to care. :)

I like that idea. I have two dozen Oatmeal, raisin, cranberry, walnut, pecan, chocolate chip cookies cooling. They are disappearing quickly. In the pacific northwest today we eat dessert first as the wind's a'blowing and the rain is coming down.

Quinn, I think you're probably right about that. After all, goats are most closely related to deer rather than sheep or other ruminants. I have served chevon burgers to company who had no idea they were eating goat until we told them. Seasonings make a big difference.

Nothing like more meat coming to get one digging in the freezer is there? Your roast looked grand even after the carnage! And my mom always added more each day to the leftover stew just before dad's payday. She called it "squeak week"!

Some of the guys in the cast of our current show are hunters and we've talked a bit about wild game. I haven't ate any wild game in about 35 years or so. and I agree that rabbit (wild and tame) and other small creatures don't taste anything like chicken. I just had lamb for the second time for a Seder during Lent. I was asked to prepare it. It was really tasty but was also heavily seasoned. I'm going to have to use your tomato trick... usually for a roast I get the Italian seasoned stewed tomatoes to cook it in.

If you take requests, I would love to read a post on your unbaked pies in the freezer. I do a lot of baked foods like lasagna, enchiladas and such that I freeze and thaw out later for times like now when we are in the fields. Baking a pie out of the freezer would be a treat!

Requests are always welcome! But I've got a post on freezing pies that I can give you the link for, "Blueberry Bounty & Frozen Pies". It gives lots of details, but the basics are to add an extra tablespoon of flour to the fruit mixture, don't cut steam vents in the top crust, and bake an extra 20 minutes. They can be put into the oven frozen, so they are wonderful to have on hand!

Cabrito (no "S") is the South of the Border term for goat. I grew up 3 miles from the border, and that's what we all called it too. You should look up Birria - a goat stew that's common in Mexico, and very good.

Just getting back to read this post and the link! Excellent! I'm going to try that for sure. I don't often make pies because of the work involved and would much rather makes several at a time and freeze the extra.

5 Acres & A Dream. The dream has always been to live close to the land. The 5 acres came in 2009, when my husband Dan and I bought a neglected 1920s-built bungalow on 5 acres. The goal is simpler, sustainable, more self-reliant living, and a return to agrarian values.

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"I believe that this contest between industrialism and agrarianism now defines the most fundamental human difference, for it divides not just two nearly opposite concepts of agriculture and land use, but also two nearly opposite ways of understanding ourselves, our fellow creatures, and our world.

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